Hey - where's the shovel?!?

Friday night the snow started falling. Thankfully, it waited until after rush hour to really get thick, although the ride to the day-care after work took about 50% longer than normal. Lots of people leaving a little early I think, to avoid the coming storm. I heard the plow in my driveway at 2:20 a.m. I could not really tell for sure that he had been there at 8:00 a.m. when I went to find the newspaper. So I figured I'd better shovel a little if I was going to take Audrey to her dance class (this is Cleveland. We do not cancel dance classes for a mere 6 inches of snow). The shovels? (We own two) Nowhere to be seen. The husband? Oh yeah - just this side of the equator. Can you believe it? He goes off for two weeks to equatorial Singapore in the dead of winter and doesn't even have the decency to retrieve the shovels from the garage attic before leaving. Thanks!

All this beautiful snow makes me keen to wrap my hands around some nice thick warm wool - no more cotton blends for me for a while. I've been working on the Braided Pullover since a little before Christmas - taking it slowly, no rush here. I'm a little stuck on the sleevecaps right now. Looking at the modeled shot, it's clear the sleeve cap is poorly planned. I'm trying to do a short row sleevecap from the top down, a la Barbara Walker, but it's still bulgy and puffy near the seamline. I've frogged the first sleeve twice now. I'm going to give it a few day's rest, then tackle it again.

I started the second "Green River" sock (Judy Sumner) - the first was made in October. I realized I did not take good notes. Oops. Thank goodness I didn't make any mods (that I can tell so far) in the first one.


I whipped out a second pair of wool socks for Audrey - closer to her actual foot size (I swear I measured the first time). $2.50 for a pair! Paton's Kroy sock yarn at Michaels, with coupon. One skein. I'm not in love with the colors (I don't think she is either to be honest), but they are great for ice-skating.


And now I'm off to chip away at the housecleaning before my parents come for a little respite on Friday. Ta!

Catching up in the New Year

Phew. Well, the holidays are over and life is returning to semi-normal around here. Semi-normal meaning that we are back to work, and Audrey is back to school (first week back not going to well in the mornings). DH is headed to the other side of the planet for a couple of weeks both this month and next (ugh), leaving me to my own devices.

Serenity was well-received at the baby shower. The mom-to-be got several handmade blankets actually, 3 crocheted, and 1 knit (mine). I have to say (with only a little bias) that mine was by far the nicest (just my opinion of course). I finished Serenity in a record short time – only 2 weeks to knit the whole thing. I didn’t take it with me for Thanksgiving, hence the three week total project time. Just bound off and blocked when I got home. It took much less yarn than I expected – 7.5 skeins of KnitPicks Shine Sport. I swatched a whole ball (leftover from Audrey’s summer sweater a couple of years ago), figured out the area in square inches, calculated the area I needed to make a 32x32” blanket, and ordered 12 balls of yarn (rounded up from 10 to 11, order one extra to be safe). Will I have enough for a lightweight sweater for Audrey? Not sure. Maybe I’ll order a couple of balls in a contrasting color and make something a little stripey for one of us.

Here’s a few pictures of the blanket – this is one of my favorite blanket patterns now. So pretty! The color is “hydrangea” – exactly the color of blue hydrangeas, and coincidentally, the same color the mom-to-be painted the walls in the nursery. Score!

Pattern: Serenity

Designer: Laura Wilson-Martos

Yarn: KnitPicks Shine Sport, Hydrangea, 7.5 balls

Needles: US 6

Mods: none